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BR  85  .M433  1844 
Merle  d'Aubign  e 
-1872. 


The  voice  of  the  church  one 


H.  179 


THE 


VOICE  OF  THE  CHURCH  ONE, 


UNDER   ALL   THE    SUCCESSIVE    FORMS   OF   CHRISTIANITY: 


A   DISCOURSE, 


PRONOUNCED  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE 


THEOLOGICAL   SCHOOL  AT  GENEVA, 


y^ 


By  J.  H.  MERLE  D'AUBIGNE,  D.  D. 

AUTHOR    OF     "  HISTORY  OF   THE    REFORMATION   IN   THE 
SIXTEENTH   CENTURY." 


[translated  by   rev.  r.   smith,  waterford,  n.   y.] 


NEW-YORK : 

PUBLISHED    BY    JOHN    S.    TAYLOR    &    CO. 

At  the  New- York   Sunday  School  and  Juvenile  Book  Depository 
Brick  Church  Chapel,  No.  145  Nassau-St. 

1844, 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1843,  by 
John  S.  Taylor,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  tho 
United  States,  for  the  Southern  District  of  Nuw  Yorls. 


HOPKINS  AND  JENNINGS, 

University  Press,  111  FuUon-st.  N.  Y 
1844. 


THE  VOICE  OF  THE  CHURCH  ONE, 


What  astonishing  labours  —  what  untiring 
activities  —  what  varied  efforts,  do  men  em- 
ploy on  earth  !  But  time  passes  its  level,  for 
the  most  part,  over  their  productions ;  while 
they  imagine  themselves  to  be  building  a 
tower  which  shall  reach  to  the  heavens,  their 
proud  works  are  confounded,  after  a  few  gen- 
erations, with  the  sands  of  the  desert. 

There  is  nothing  stable  here,  but  Christi- 
anity. That  alone  is  immovable,  like  its 
Author.  It  is  this  rock  against  which  have 
broken,  and  are  still  breaking,  waves  ever 
new,  without  being  able  to  shake  it. 


4  THE    VOICE    OF 

If,  then,  there  is  any  one  who  wishes  to 
give  stability  to  his  work  on  earth,  let  him 
connect  it  with  Religion  :  it  will  receive  from 
this  connexion  an  impress  of  immortality. 

I  am  aware,  Gentlemen,  that  these  are 
truths  not  generally  recognized  among  men. 
There  are  two  prevailing  errors  on  this  sub- 
ject. There  are  those  who  find  nothing  un- 
changeable even  in  the  essence  of  Christianity. 
"  The  Christian  doctrine,"  say  they,  "  is  only 
a  particular  development  of  the  religious  sen- 
timent. This  form  has  succeeded  to  a  pre- 
vious one,  and  will,  in  turn,  be  succeeded  by 
another.  The  Religion  of  Christ  sprang  ne- 
cessarily out  of  the  state  of  humanity  in  the 
time  of  the  Caesars,  as  a  tree  in  Spring  pro- 
duces buds  and  flowers."  Singular  error  of 
Rationalism ;  but  Avhich  history  refutes  in 
the  clearest  manner.  History  shows  that 
Christianity  was  not  in  accordance  with  the 
directions  of  the  human  mind,  at  the  time  it 


THE    CHURCH.  0 

appeared,  but  in  direct  opposition  to  them. 
The  wisdom  of  the  world  did  not  give  Chris- 
tianity birth  ;  —  it  sought  to  crush  it.  Chris- 
tianity was  not  the  child  of  the  times  :  it  was, 
on  the  contrary,  its  adversary  and  regenera- 
tor ;  and  as  it  was  not  from  the  dust  of  the 
earth  that  this  precious  fruit  sprang,  it  can- 
not of  course  return  thither  again.  Then  did 
the  Heavens  give  a  treasure  to  the  world, 
which  successive  generations  ought  to  trans- 
mit uncorrupted  from  hand  to  hand.  This  is 
the  treasure  which  we  have  received ;  which 
we  are  to  hold  with  fear  and  reverence  in 
earthen  vessels ;  and  we,  in  turn,  must  trans- 
mit it  to  our  posterity,  still  unchanged  and 
unchangeable  amongst  millions  of  men,  "un- 
til the  heavens  and  the  earth  flee  away,  and 
there  is  found  no  more  place  for  them." 

But  if  we  encounter,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
triflers  with  Christianity,  we  meet,  on  the 
other,  with  those  who  would  give  to  it  a  uni- 
1* 


b  THE    VOICE    OF 

formity  of  appearance  in  all  ages.  There 
is  something-,  undoubtedly,  which  never 
changes  in  Christianity,  and  that  is  its  es~ 
sence;  but  there  is  something  also,  which 
does  change,  and  that  is  its  appearance :  and 
it  is  for  want  of  properly  understanding  this 
distinction,  that  so  many  have  erred  in  regard 
to  the  invariableness  of  Christ's  religion.  A 
man  changes  his  appearance  at  different 
ages  of  his  life  :  his  essence,  never  :  —  he  is 
still  the  same  man. 

The  Christian  Religion,  at  the  time  it 
came  from  heaven,  was  under  the  necessity, 
as  is  every  thing  else  in  this  world,  of  cloth- 
ing itself  in  a  human  form.  The  external 
circumstances  of  different  epochs,  must  exer- 
cise an  influence  upon  the  successive  devel- 
opments of  Christian  truth.  To  such  a  form 
must  succeed  such  another ;  nor  could  these 
forms  be  things  altogether  indifferent.  Some 
have  been  better  than  others ;  but  the  same 


THE   CHURCH.  7 

essential  verities  have  been  found  in  all  past 
varieties,  and  will  be,  in  all  which  are  to 
come. 

Gentlemen  —  the  v/ork  in  which  we  are 
engaged,  and  of  which  I  am  to  give  you 
some  account  to-day,  is,  in  itself,  a  feeble,  an 
humble  work ;  but  here  is  its  glory,  that  it 
belongs  to  the  work  of  eternity.  If  we  attach 
ourselves  to  that  which  belongs  to  the  appear- 
ance of  Religion  only,  we  can  have  no  secu- 
rity for  that  which  we  labour  to  defend.  The 
first  revolution  of  society  would  sweep  our 
work  to  the  tomb.  But  if  we  address  our- 
selves to  the  essence  of  Christianity,  the 
cause  to  which  we  devote  ourselves  partakes 
of  the  perpetuity  of  the  worfc  of  God.  We 
may  fail ;  and  being  mortal,  we  shall  fail : 
our  school  may  fail ;  but  the  cause  to  which 
it  is  devoted  shall  not  fail,  neither  in  this 
place,  nor  in  all  the  earth.  To  that  cause, 
according  to  the  ancient  oracle,  "  the  gather- 


8  THE    VOICE    OF 

ing  of  the  people  shall  be."  Yes,  Gentle- 
men, here  lies  the  foundation  of  all  our  hopes  ; 
it  is  this  which,  by  the  grace  of  God,  shall 
animate  us  in  all  our  difficulties  and  trials : 
and  it  will  be  worth  our  pains  to  explain  and 
defend,  on  the  present  occasion,  this  remarka- 
ble characteristic  of  the  Religion  of  Jesus 
Christ — The  invar iahleness  of  its  doctrines^ 
under  different  forms :  or.  The  voice  of  the 
Church  one  and  the  same,  in  all  ages. 

If  we  search  in  the  different  periods  of  his- 
tory for  the  human  forms  in  which  the  truth 
of  God  has  been  clothed,  we  shall  fmd  a  great 
number.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  bring 
them  together  —  to  re-unite  and  amass  them. 
We  shall  obtain  thus,  in  the  last  synthesis, 
FOUR  PERIODS,  or  principal  forms  of  Chris- 
tianity.—  The  first,  is  the  primitive^  or  the 
fortn  of  Life ;  the  second  is  the  form  of 
Dogma;  the  third,  the  Scholastic,  or,  the 
form  of  the  School ;  and  the  last,  the  form 


THE    CHURCH.  y 

of  the    Reformation. The    Church   of 

Christ,  to  use  a  Scriptural  illustration,  is  like 
an  individual  man.  It  has  its  youth,  its  ma- 
turity, its  old  age  —  and  then,  if  we  might  so 
say,  it  has,  without  dying,  a  glorious  resur- 
rection. 

Let  us  run  rapidly  over  these  four  forms  — 
so  diverse,  I  had  almost  said,  so  opposite,  in 
appearance  —  and  see  if  we  do  not  find,  un- 
der each  of  them,  the  same  unchangeable 
truths. 

We  shall  hear  the  voice  of  Doctors.  Un- 
doubtedly, the  declarations  of  no  one  single 
man  are  sufficient  to  satisfy  us  what  was  the 
faith  of  the  Church ;  but  if,  on  examining 
those  Doctors  who  lived  in  countries  the 
most  distant  from  each  other,  we  find,  amidst 
great  diversities  of  views,  some  doctrines  on 
which  they  are  all  agreed,  shall  we  not  safely 
conclude  that  these  doctrines  have  also  been 
those  of  all  the  Church  throughout  the  earth  ? 


10  THE    VOICE    OP 

Whatj  then,  are  the  points  on  which  to 
direct  our  present  inquiry  ? 

All  Christianity,  as  well  as  all  religious 
Philosophy,  has  respect,  necessarily,  to  three 
principal  points.  It  has  respect,  at  first,  to 
God  ;  and  then,  to  Man  ;  and  then,  to  the 
RELATION  between  God  and  man ;  or,  the 
scheme  adopted  by  Deity  to  restore  man  to 
himself,  which  is  Redemption. 

Let  us  now  see  what  the  voice  of  the 
Church  has  taught  us,  on  these  three  points, 
in  the  different  periods  of  Christianity.  — 
There  is, 

I. THE    FORM    OF    LIFE. 

In  considering  this  form,  we  shall  omit  the 
time  of  the  Apostles ;  since  that  deserves  to 
be  considered  by  itself  The  primitive  form, 
according  to  our  plan,  commences  with  the 
successors  of  the  Apostles,  and  extends  to  the 
time  of  Arius.     The  character  which  distin- 


THE    CHURCH.  11 

guishes  it,  is  that  of  life.  The  truths  of  Re- 
ligion were  not  yet  exhibited  with  that 
precision  and  system  which  distinguished 
them  at  a  later  period.  The  essential  thing 
was  the  life  which  results  from  these  truths, 
when  properly  received.  They  lived  for 
Christ,  in  the  midst  of  a  world  of  idolatry ; 
they  died  for  Christ,  in  the  arena  and  on  the 
funeral  pile,  and  without  much  discussing 
the  nature  of  his  person,  or  disputing  about 
his  work.  Christianity  was  content  to  exist, 
and  to  know  and  profess  that  it  existed,  with- 
out enunciating  and  classifying  all  the  parts 
in  which  that  existence  consisted.  Just  as 
a  man  is  satisfied  for  a  long  time  to  have  and 
enjoy  being,  without  studying  and  explaining 
in  what  that  being  consists. 

Certain  Rationalistic  Doctors  strangely  infer 
from  this  character  of  the  primitive  form  of 
Christianity,  that  the  Christian  truths  did  not 
then  exist,  and  that  because  there  was  no 


12  THE    VOICE    OF 

dogmatism,  there  were  therefore  no  doctrines. 
But  to  reason  thus,  is  to  reason  as  strangely 
and  falsely  as  would  that  inexperienced  ob- 
server, who  should  maintain  that  the  essen- 
tial parts  of  a  human  being  did  not  exist 
until  the  man  had  made  a  precise  and  rational 
analysis  of  them. 

It  results  from  this  characteristic  also,  that 
the  controversies  of  this  period  turn  very  lit- 
tle upon  dogmas.  The  differences  are  in 
tendencies  rather  than  doctrines.  We  shall 
meet  with  families  presenting  different  as- 
pects, rather  than  sects  maintaining  different 
doctrines.  Let  us  trace  these  families  a  little, 
before  proceeding  to  notice  th^  doctrines 
which  they  all  agreed  to  proclaim. 

To  the  inspiration  of  the  Apostles  succeed- 
ed the  simple  Christianity  of  the  Apostolic 
Fathers.  It  would  seem  that  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature  had  in  this  case  been  re- 
versed, and  that  the  ingenuousness  and  sim- 


THE    CHURCH.  13 

plicity  of  infancy  had  followed  the  strength 
and  maturity  of  the  full-grown  man.  The 
Church,  under  the  instruction  of  her  Ignatius, 
her  Polycarp,  and  many  other  faithful  disci- 
ples, lived  under  the  great  idea  of  the  speedy 
return  of  Jesus  Christ :  and  behold  the  sum- 
mary of  her  faith !  ^^A  neio  creation  must 
he  accomplished  in  humanity,  before  the 
arrival  of  that  solemn  day^^  "  There  are," 
says  Barnabas,  "  three  constitutions,  or  three 
economies  of  the  Lord  ;  —  the  hope  of  life, 
(the  Old  Testament,)  the  commencement  of 
life,  (the  New  Testament,)  and  the  consum- 
mation of  life,  (the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.)" 

But  by  little  and  little  this  direction  to- 
wards the  heavens,  seems  to  decline  in  the 
Church.  A  generation  appears,  which  does 
not  so  deeply  penetrate  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ.  They  gather  curious  traditions  con- 
cerning this  terrestrial  appearing  of  Christ. 
Some  carnal  Jews,  who  are  still  expecting  a 
2 


14  THE    VOICE    OF 

Messiah  altogether  human,  brought  in  the 
grossest  views  under  a  Christian  name.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  Church  was  fatigued  with 
her  exalted  flight,  and  was  beginning  to  seek 
the  earth.  Let  us  not  be  astonished  at  this. 
One  always  experiences  languor  and  drowsi- 
ness after  long  watching  eind  care. 

But  there  now  appeared  on  the  limits  of 
Christianity,  and  almost  beyond  it,  a  tendency 
directly  the  opposite  of  this.  Oriental  Phil- 
osophy attempts  to  unite  itself  with  the  Re- 
ligion of  Jesus.  It  seeks  to  take  away  from 
Religion  its  practical  character,  and  to  convert 
it  into  systems,  which  lose  themselves  in  the 
clouds.  Gnosticism  substituted  for  a  salu- 
tary faith,  a  fantastic  cosmogony,  by  means 
of  which  it  proposed  to  explain  that  which  is 
inexplicable,  and  to  cultivate  a  theosophy, 
which  would  procure  for  man  on  earth  the 
sublime  contemplations  of  Heaven.  The 
West  recoils  before  these  adventurous  vaga- 


THE    CHURCH.  15 

ries  of  the  East.  In  Proconsular  Africa,  and 
among  the  Gauls,  the  Tertullians  and  the 
IrencBiises  arise.  These  offer  a  Christianity 
simple,  positive,  historical — and  propose  to 
men  that  faith  which  nourishes  alike  the  lit- 
tle and  the  great.  Regarding  Philosophy  as 
the  source  of  Gnosticism,  they  begin  to  view 
with  distrust  the  wisdom  and  scientific  cul- 
ture of  the  Greeks. 

But  this  exclusive  simplicity  has  also  its 
dangers.  The  cultivated  Pagans,  not  finding 
in  the  Christianity  offered  them,  any  thing 
which  responds  to  their  intellectual  taste,  re- 
main in  the  worship  of  their  false  Gods,  or 
precipitately  cast  themselves  into  the  ad- 
venturous systems  of  the  Gnostics.  Alex- 
andria—  situated  on  the  borders  of  the  Nile, 
between  the  East  and  West  —  remarks  this: 
Alexandria,  the  grand  mart  of  the  Sciences  — 
where  the  gospel  is  said  to  have  been  carried 
by  the  Apostle  Mark — undertakes  to  mediate 
between  these  two  tendencies  of  man,  into 


16  THE    VOICE    OF 

which  the  world  was  divided.  Pantgenus, 
Clement,  and  Origen,  found  a  Christian  Sci- 
ence, and  in  that  approach  the  East ;  but  they 
found  it  on  the  Scriptures  and  in  that  are 
nearer  to  the  West :  —  (^vwo»^  aXyi^hyi  —  true 
Science.)  Alas,  it  was  not  wholly  so :  and 
these  Doctors,  although  they  did  not  abandon 
the  fundamental  principles  of  Christianity,  in- 
corporated in  their  systems  the  insidious  germs 
of  the  two  great  heresies,  which  have  since 
troubled  a  subsequent  epoch  and  all  epochs.* 
The  School  of  Alexandria,  by  little  and 
little,  supplanted  Gnosticism.  But  against 
that,  in  turn,  are  directed  the  arms  of  the  se- 
vere and  practical  School  of  the  West.  A 
contest  of  a  remarkable  character,  arises  be- 
tween these  two  churches,  or  Schools  rather, 
in  the  third  century.  But  the  opposite  ten- 
dencies seem  to  balance  each  other,  and  thus 
contribute  to  the  prosperity  of  Religion.     Al- 

*  Arianism  and  Pelagianism. 


THE     CHURCH.  17 

exandria  originates  a  Theological  spirit  in  the 
church.  She  begins  to  systematize,  to  eluci- 
date her  doctrines.  She  prevents  a  gross  An- 
thromorphism  from  mingling  with  the  celes- 
tial doctrines  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  West  is 
always  bringing  back  to  the  simple  and  literal 
word  of  Scripture.  It  recalls  to  mind  con- 
stantly, that  Christianity  is  a  thing  to  be  felt, 
proved  in  the  heart,  and  exhibited  in  the  life. 
It  prevents  the  changing  of  these  positive  and 
salutary  doctrines  for  vain  and  fantastic  spec- 
ulations. 

Such,  Gentlemen,  are  some  of  the  succes- 
sive phases  of  our  primitive  form  of  Christi- 
anity. But  in  the  midst  of  all  a  spirit  of  life 
still  animates  the  Church.  It  is  the  age  of 
her  youth.  These  Christians,  delivered  from 
the  sins  of  Paganism,  feel  the  transforming 
influence  of  the  gospel,  with  more  energy, 
from  being  able  to  compare  what  it  has  made 
them,    with  what  they  were  before.      This 


18  THE   VOICE    OF 

conflict  with  the  world  reminds  them  con- 
stantly of  their  vocation  as  soldiers  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Every  thing  in  the  Church  now 
lives  —  every  thing  moves.  She  aspires  to  the 
skies ;  she  seems  half-way  ascended ;  and  al- 
though the  age  of  gold  must  be  reserved  for 
"  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,"  which 
she  is  expecting,  the  Christian  Church  pre- 
sents, in  these  days  of  her  youth  and  life, 
traits  of  beauty,  that  are  absolutely  celestial. 
And  what  are  the  doctj^ines,  which  are  pro- 
fessed by  this  new  people,  which  the  breath 
of  the  Almighty  has  created  in  the  earth? 
They  recognize  o?ie  living  and  true  God. 
They  worship  in  God,  not  only  the  principle 
of  all  things,  ( The  Father^)  but  the  Redeemer 
also,  ( The  Son)  and  the  sanctifier  of  fallen 
humanity,  ( The  Holy  Spirit.)  They  believ- 
ed that  the  same  God,  who  created  man  in 
righteousness  has  redeemed  him  from  sin, 
and  does  not  cease  to  sanctify  him  mitil  he 


THE   CHURCH.  19 

comes  to  everlasting  life.  They  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  strange  error,  by  which  some  would 
rob  God  of  the  work  and  glory  of  Redemption, 
by  giving  it  to  a  creature. 

The  idea  of  a  T7'inity  i7i  the  God  head 
discovers  itself  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  primitive'Jepoch,  and  never  ceases  to  be 
proclaimed,  in  a  manner  the  most  distinct. 
How  does  the  voice  of  these  early  soldiers  of 
the  Cross,  confound  the  bold  pretensions  of 
modern  times  I  Hear  it :  Clement  of  Ro3ie, 
a  disciple  of  Paul,  renders  glory  to  God  in 
the  following  profession, —  ''One  God,  one 
Christ,  one  Spirit  of  Grace :"  while  Polycarp, 
a  disciple  of  John,  dying  in  the  midst  of  the 
jSames,  ascribes  eternal  glory  "  to  the  Father, 
to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Justin  Martyr,  a  converted  sage,  who 
in  the  time  of  the  Antonines,  poured  out  his 
blood  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  proclaims,  "  a 
unity  in  Trinity."  —  Theophilus,  Bishop  of 


20  THE   VOICE    OF 

Antiochj  about  the  same  time,  and  in  a  man- 
ner still  more  explicit,  professes  "  The  Holy 
Trinity/^ 

A  little  afterwards,  we  find  Tertullian, 
a  lawyer  of  Africa,  now  become  a  pastor  of 
God's  flock,  proclaiming  "  a  Trinity  of  one 
Divine  Being,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit?"  and  in  another  place  —  "Let  us 
guard  well,  the  sacrament  of  our  economy, 
'^a  unity  in  Trinity,'  recognizing  three^  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost. — One 
in  substance,  one  in  estate,  and  one  in  power, 
became  one  God."* 

And  let  us  hear  a  Bishop  of  a  city  near  our 
own,  a  city  trampled  by  the  fury  of  Christ's 


*  Note  by  the  Translator.  —  The  original  authorities 
are  referred  to,  and  printed  in  full,  in  the  notes  to  Dr. 
Merle's  pamphlet;  but  it  has  not  been  deemed  necessary 
to  insert  them  here. 


THE   CHURCH.  21 

enemies  in  his  day,  and  by  other  furies  in  our 
own  —  let  us  hear  Iren^us,  of  Lyons,  who 
had  left  the  enlightened  shores  of  Asia  to  bear 
the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  to  the  barbarous 
Gauls  —  how  does  he  defend  the  great  doc- 
trine of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh !  "  Christ " 
says  he,  "united  in  himself  God  and  man: 
if  MAN  had  not  vanquished  the  enemy  of  man, 
(i.  e.  the  Devil,)  he  had  not  been  properly 
vanquished :  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  God 
had  not  wrought  salvation,  we  could  never 
have  been  assured  of  possessing  it." 

We  have  thus  passed,  as  yet,  only  some 
few  scores  of  years,  from  the  death  of  the 
Apostles,  and  we  have  found  proclaimed  by 
so  many  illustrious  Doctors,  this  doctrine  of 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  a  d(?ctrine  of 
which  Christ  designed  to  establish  a  perpetual 
monument  in  the  Church  by  the  institution 
of  Baptism.  The  first  of  all  the  Church's 
Teachers,  defend  this  most  consoling  doctrine 


22  THE    VOICE    OF 

of  God  become  Man.  The  further  we  ad- 
vance, the  more  do  these  testimonies  increase: 
throughout,  is  most  deeply  engraven,  both  in 
the  sentiments  and  worship  of  God's  people, 
the  eternal  Divinity  of  the  Son  of  God.  Even 
one  of  the  wisest  of  the  Heathen  sages,  could 
say  of  them,  "  These  Christians  meet  together, 
to  sing  hymns  to  Christ,  as  being  God." —  But 
do  we  inquire  now,  what  these  Christians  of 
the  primitive  epoch  believed  concerning 
onan  ?  They  did  not  imagine  with  certain 
Pagans  and  certain  modern  Doctors,  that  all 
evil  proceeds  from  natural  organization  in 
man,  and  that  this  evil  is  not  in  opposition 

to  the  holiness  of  God  ! Their  sentiment 

was,  that  the  first  man,  having,  by  disobedi- 
ence, separated  his  will  from  the  will  of  God, 
human  nature  has  been  abandoned  to  itself, 
and  thus  separated  from  God,  has  fallen  under 
the  dominion  of  evil. 

Let  us  approach,  for  proof,  the  college  of 


THE    CHURCH.  23 

the  Apostles:  let  us  interrogate  those  who 
either  surrounded  or  succeeded  them.  Bar- 
nabas^ the  companion  of  Paul,  has  these 
words :  "  Before  we  believed,  the  habitation 
of  our  hearts  was  full  of  corruption  and  sin ; 
filled  with  idolatry,  and  a  dwelling-place  of 
demons."  Justin^  who  had  sought  in  vain, 
in  all  philosophy,  a  key  to  the  history  of  man, 
finds  it,  at  length,  in  the  fall  of  Adam,  effect- 
ed by  the  seductions  of  Satan  concealed  in 
the  form  of  a  serpent.  (See  his  Dialogue 
with  Trypho,  p.  306.) 

The  first  man^  according  to  the  simple 
and  practical  IreiKBiis^  is  "like  the  case  of 
one  who,  being  incarcerated,  propagates  a 
race  in  prison."  The  profound  Tertullian 
has  already  called  the  corruption  of  human 
nature  "original  sin."  [Vitium  Originis,) 
"The  first  man,"  says  he,  "infected  the  spe- 
cies descending  from  him,  and  rendered  them 
partakers  of  his  condemnation."     Cyprian^ 


I 

24  THE    VOICE    OF 

Bishop  of  Carthage,  understands  the  origin  of 
sin  in  the  same  way.  "  The  infant,  at  birth, 
has  no  sin,"  says  he,  "  unless  it  be,  in  that  it 
is  descended,  according  to  the  flesh,  from 
Adam,  and  has,  by  its  birth,  contracted  the 
contagion  of  death." 

And  now,  if  we  betake  ourselves  to  the 
school  of  Alexandria,  and  think  to  hear  some- 
thing more  flattering  to  our  pride  from  these 
philosophical  Theologians,  even  there  we 
shall  learn  from  Origen,  that  "  Adam  turned 
from  the  straight  way  of  Paradise,  to  take 
the  evil  ways  of  mortal  life."  "In  conse- 
quence, all  those  who,  descending  from  him, 
have  come  into  the  world,  are  also  turned  out 
of  the  way,  and  become,  like  him,  unprofita- 
ble." "  Every  man  is  corrupted  in  his  father 
and  in  his  mother :  Jesus  Christ  alone  was 
born  pure."  "It  is  impossible  that  man, 
since  his  fall,  should  regard  God ;  he  must 
be  subject,  at  first,  to  the  dominion  of  sin." 


THE    CHURCH.  25 

Thus  Egypt,  as  well  as  Gaul,  and  Africa, 
with  Asia,  alike  recognize  man  as  a  being 
fallen  and  impure. 

And  how  is  this  fallen  and  defiled  being  to 
be  reconciled  to  a  holy  God  ?  What  thought 
the  Christians  of  this  primitive  epoch,  of  the 
means  by  which  God  saves  ?  Let  us  inter- 
rogate those  again  who  surrounded  the  Apos- 
tles. They  will  teach  us  those  sacred  doc- 
trines of  Grace,  which  were  more  fully 
explained  at  a  later  period.  "The  Son  of 
God  has  suffered,"  says  Barnabas^  "  that  his 
sufferings  might  give  us  life.  He  offered  in 
sacrifice  for  us,  the  vessel  of  his  spirit,  (i.  e. 
his  hody.y  Again,  "  Having  learned  to  hope 
in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  having  received 
the  remission  of  sins,  we  are  become  neio 
men,  and  new-createdP  Hernias  —  the  same 
perhaps  of  whom  Paul  speaks  —  (Rom.  xvi. 
14)  —  says  :  "  Before  man  receives  the  name 

of  a  child  of  God,  he  is  condemned  to  death ; 
3 


26  THE    VOICE   OP 

but  when  this  seal  is  applied,  he  is  delivered 
from  death  and  passes  into  life."  "  The  law 
of  God,"  says  Justin,  "pronounced  a  curse 
upon  man,  inasmuch  as  he  could  not  fulfil  it 
in  all  its  extent.  (See  Deut.  xvii.  26.)  But 
Christ  has  delivered  us  from  this  curse,  in 
bearing  it  on  our  behalf"  Do  we  speak  diffe- 
rently, at  the  present  day  ? 

Irenceiis  sees  in  circumcision  "a  type  of 
the  saving  blood  of  Christ,  and  in  the  tree  of 
life,  a  type  of  the  cross  of  Christ."  Else- 
where he  declares  "  that  man  must  no  longer 
seek  to  purify  himself  by  sacrifices,  but  by 
Christ's  blood  and  his  death."  The  Paschal 
Lamb,  according  to  him,  foreshadowed  Christ, 
"  who  saves  those  that  believe  in  him,  by  the 
sprinkling  of  his  blood ;"  and  the  two  goats 
—  of  which  the  one  was  sent  away  into  the 
wilderness,  and  the  other  sacrificed  to  God  — 
was  a  representation  of  the  two-fold  coming 
of    Christ,    the    one    for   death,    and    the 


THE    CHURCH. 


27 


other  for  glory.  He  opposes  to  the  disobedi- 
ence of  Adam,  the  obedience  of  Christ. — 
"  Christ  reconciles  the  Father  to  us,"  says  he, 
''in  replacing,  by  his  obedience,  the  disobe- 
dience of  the  first  man ;"  and,  pursuing  his 
comparison  of  a  man  cast  into  prison  by  sin, 
and  into  captivity  to  the  Devil,  declares  that 
"Christ  has  paid  the  ransom  necessary  for 
deliverance  from  this  captivity." 

In  the  same  way  does  Origen  represent 
the  death  of  Christ  as  "that  power  which 
delivers  man  from  sin."  Indeed,  the  entire 
Church  regards  the  sufterings  of  the  Lamb  of 
God  as  the  means  by  which  the  Avay  to  the 
Father  has  been  re-opened  to  the  children  of 
men.  It  is  faith  which  renders  man  a  parta- 
ker of  this  deliverance,  and  this  communi- 
cates, at  the  same  time,  a  divine  life.  "  Called 
by  the  grace  of  God,"  says  Clement  of  Rome, 
"  v/e  are  justified  —  not  by  ourselves,  not  by 


28 


THE    VOICE    OF 


our  wisdom  or  goodness,  or  any  works  which 
we  have  wrought  in  the  sanctity  of  our  hearts  ; 
but  by  faith^  according  to  Avhich  a  sovereign 
God  has  justified  men  in  all  time.  Do  we 
live  at  ease,  then,  on  that  account?  Do  we 
cease  to  do  good  works?  Far  from  it.  We 
do  good  works  with  joy  —  even  as  God  for 
ever  works,  and  rejoices  in  his  activity." 

Behold,  then,  this  holy  Church  of  the  prim- 
itive epoch.  Hear  how  she  speaks  to  us  from 
the  bosom  of  her  griefs,  and,  as  it  were,  from 
the  height  of  the  scaffolds  where  she  suffered. 
She  confesses  her  miseries,  and  embracinsr  the 
knees  of  Jesus,  calls  him  her  "  Saviour  and 
her  God."  Who  can  misunderstand  the  pro- 
found accents  of  her  sincere  piety?  How 
pitiable  the  occupation  of  those  who  would 
despoil  her  of  these  white  robes,  and  clothe 
her  with  the  tattered  garments  of  a  modern 
Infidelity !     But  this  profane  efibrt  is,  in  the 


THE    CHURCH.  29 

mean  time,  a  homage  rendered  to  the  Church 

—  the  first  Unitarians  had  recourse  to  the 
same  expedient. 

Yain  are  all  these  devices ;  for  whoever 
will  listen,  shall  always  hear  the  voice  of  the 
primitive  Church  proclaiming,  with  one  ac- 
cord, these  unchangeable  truths. 

II. THE    FORM    OF    DOGMA. 

In  our  view  of  the  primitive  epoch  of  the 
Church  —  although  we  have  gathered  only 
here  and  there  a  sheaf  from  the  vast  harvest 

—  we  have  already  extended  ourselves  be- 
yond the  proper  limits  of  this  discourse.  We 
have  done  so,  because  it  is  in  this  age  alone 
that  our  adversaries  are  wont  to  hazard  the 
controversy.  They  despair  of  other  periods  ; 
and  they  make  loud  and  violent  complaints, 
if  the  faith,  Avhich  they  cannot  but  acknowl- 
edge, is  to  be  found  in  them.  We  will  not 
therefore  greatly  strive  for  a  field,  on  which 

3* 


30  THE    VOICE    OF 

our  foes  proclaim  in  advance  that  they  are 
vanquished,  and  must  abandon. 

This  epoch  opens  as  the  era  of  great  Doc- 
tors, great  truths,  and  great  heresies.  It  was 
the  period  in  which  Christian  Theology  —  of 
which  the  elements  had  been  preparing  in  a 
preceding  epoch  —  was  carried,  by  illustrious 
men  of  God,  to  its  highest  point  of  elevation. 
It  was  the  era  of  Athanasiiis,  of  Hilary^  of 
Gregory  J  of  Basil,  of  Ambrose^  of  Augustin, 
and  of  Chrysostom  ;  the  time  of  lofty  spirits  ; 
the  age  mature  of  the  Church.  The  last 
murders  of  the  confessors  of  Christ  have 
ceased  —  the  memorable  Council  of  Nice  has 
been  held  —  the  epoch  of  Life  is  finished  — 
the  form  of  Dogma  begins.  Not  that  there 
was  no  longer  any  life  in  the  Church ;  but 
that  the  characteristic  of  dogma  is  that  which 
now  prevails.  Now  man  loves  to  have  dis- 
tinct ideas  of  what  he  believes ;  to  metho- 
dize;   to  render  reasons.     The  Church,  no 


THE    CHURCH.  31 

longer  obliged  to  struggle  with  persecution 
from  without,  has  more  room  to  occupy  her- 
self with  that  which  is  within.  She  arranges 
the  faith  which  she  has  long  possessed. 

The  different  tendencies  of  a  former  age, 
in  the  mean  time,  develop  more  and  more ; 
and  bv  a  remarkable  transformation,  arrange 
themselves  in  opposing  doctrines — just  as 
the  dispositions  of  youth,  at  first  vague  and 
indeterminate,  are  resolved  into  distinct  char- 
acteristics, in  the  mature  man.  The  tiDo 
great  heresies  appear,  conducted  by  Arius 
and  Felagius ;  but  even  these  heresies  be- 
came the  means  which  God  uses  for  the  bet- 
ter establishment  of  the  truth.  The  doctrines 
so  clearly  defined  by  the  Church  of  this  pe- 
piod  will  now  be  faithfully  transmitted. 
They  will  be  preserved  and  perpetuated 
amidst  all  the  troubled  barbarism  of  succeed- 
ing times.  The  Dogmatic  form  shall  be,  by 
divine  grace,  the  shield  of  these  truths  in 


32  THE    VOICE   OF 

days  of  coming  struggle  and  revolution,  and 
the  very  hammer  to  break  their  way  into 
minds  of  hardened  barbarism.  But  while, 
in  order  to  recognize  truth  more  distinctly, 
they  divide  it  into  many  minutice,  it  must  be 
confessed  they  sometimes  seem  to  lose  sight 
of  the  essence  —  the  life  itself. 

The  East  and  the  West  preserve,  in  the 
meantime,  their  peculiar  characteristics.  The 
East  remains  the  country  of  lofty  specula- 
tions —  the  West,  that  of  practical  questions. 
The  East  discourses  concerning  God  —  the 
West  occupies  itself  more  with  m.an.  The 
East  produces  an  Athanasias  —  the  West,  a 
Pelagius  and  an  Aiigustin.  But  both  in 
the  one  country  and  in  the  other,  the  truth  is 
assailed,  and  obtains  distinguished  victories. 
Having  passed  the  time  of  its  youth,  the 
Christian  doctrine,  like  the  just  man,  is  put  to 
trial,  but  was  not  to  prove  a  second  fall.  It 
will  resist  seduction ;  it  will  remain  firm. 


THE    CHURCH.  33 

The  doctrine  concerning  God  was  first 
expounded  now,  and  with  great  clearness; 
because  it  was  the  first  upon  which  man  had 
dared  to  lay  a  menacing  hand.  Athanasius, 
a  distinguished  Doctor  of  Alexandria,  dis- 
covers, in  the  profound  mystery  of  human 
redemption,  the  necessity  of  the  eternal  Di- 
vinity of  the  Redeemer.  Earth  has  no  Sa- 
viour, if  its  Saviour  be  not  God.  If  Atha- 
7iasius  consecrates  his  life,  and  submits  to  so 
many  exiles,  to  defend  the  identity  of  sub- 
stance between  the  Father  and  the  Son,  it 
is  not  that  he  attaches  so  great  value  to  a 
dialectic  subtlety;  no,  he  combats  for  the 
•essence  of  Christianity  itself,  and  for  the  sal- 
vation of  souls.  Christianity  has  for  its  ob- 
ject to  re-establish  man  in  communication 
with  God.  In  order  to  this,  there  must  be 
a  Mediator.  "But,"  said  Athanasius,  "if 
the  Son  of  God  be  different  in  essence  from 
God,  then  would  there  be  need  of  another 


34 


THE    VOICE    OP 


Mediator,  to  unite  him  with  God.  He  alone 
can  establish  a  real  communication  between 
God  and  his  creatures,  who  has  no  need  of  a 
mediation  for  himself — but  who  is  himself 
a  part  of  the  Divine  essence.  Now  such  is 
the  Son  of  God.  Were  he  a  creature  —  be  it 
the  most  excellent  and  exalted  — he  would, 
in  interposing  between  God  and  man,  instead 
of  uniting,  separate  them  one  from  another." 
{Athan.  Oratio  contra  Arian.) 

But  let  us  hear  the  entire  Cliurch  in  the 
Symbols  of  her  faith.  '•  This  is  the  faith 
universal,"  says  she,  "that  Vv^e  worship  one 
God  in  Trinity,  and  the  Trinity  in  unity  — 
without  confounding  the  Persons  or  dividing 
the  Substance :  for  the  Person  of  the  Father 
is  one ;  that  of  the  Son,  another,  and  that  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  another.  But  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Spirit,  are  one  same  Divinity — one 
equal  Glory — one  co-eternal  Majesty.  Such 
as  is  the  Father,  such  is  the  Son,  and  such 


THE    CHUPvCH.  35 

the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Father  is  uncreated  — 
the  Son  is  uncreated  —  the  Spirit  is  uncrea- 
ted :  the  Father  is  God  —  the  Son  is  God  — 
the  Spirit  is  God  ;  but  at  the  same  time,  there 
are  not  three  Gods,  but  one  God.  —  And  the 
true  faith  is  :  -^  We  believe  and  confess,  that 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  is 
God  and  man  :  God,  of  the  substance  of  the 
Father,  begotten  before  the  worlds  began ; 
and  man,  of  the  substance  of  the  mother, 
born  ia  time  —  perfect  God  and  perfect  man 
— ■  equal  to  the  Father,  according  to  his  Di- 
vinity—  less  than  the  Father,  according  to 
humanity."     (AUianasian  Creed.) 

A  controversy  of  sixty  years  (from  320  to 
38  i)  was  necessary  to  determine,  explain, 
and  defend  this  doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of 
Christ. 

Bui  new  combats  now  commenced  to  deter- 
mine another  dogma.  A  little  after  Athana- 
sius    and    those   who   followed   with   him 


36  THE    VOICE    OF 

appeared  another  Teacher  in  the  Churchj 
who  seemed  to  have  received  a  commission 
to  explain  and  defend  the  true  doctrine  con- 
cerning IMan.  This  was  Augustin.  Al- 
ready indeed  had  the  truth  on  this  subject 
been  believed  and  confessed  by  those  who 
had  gone  before  him.  "  By  the  sin  of  one 
Adam,"  says  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  "all  the 
human  race  has  sinned."  "We  have  all 
sinned  in  the  first  man,"  says  Ambrose,  "in 
him  human  nature  has  sinned."  But  it  was 
when  the  great  Doctor  of  the  West  arose ;  he 
under  whose  influence  were  to  be  found, 
during  many  ages,  all  who  should  have  clear 
ideas  of  truth  ;  it  was  when  Augustin  ap- 
peared, that  all  the  depths  of  human  impo- 
tency  were  developed. 

This  man  had  abandoned  Manicheism, 
then  Platonism  —  not  finding  in  the  one  or 
the  other  that  inward  peace  which  he  needed 
in   the   midst  of   life's    tempests  —  and   he 


THE    CHURCH.  37 

seized  with  avidity  on  the  Gospel,  which 
dissipated  his  doubts,  consoled  his  heart,  and 
scattered  lio;ht  in. all  his  ways.  In  these  com- 
bats with  sin  and  a  vain  philosophy,  he  had 
learned  to  recognize  in  himself  all  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  human  heart ;  and  here  is  the 
chord  which  henceforth  vibrates  in  all  his 
instructions.  Pursued  at  once  by  the  sublime 
ideal  of  sanctity,  and  by  all  the  seductions  of 
sensuality,  he  sees  opened,  by  the  shock  of 
these  conflicting  elements,  the  deep  profun- 
dities of  his  own  heart  —  even  as  the  tem- 
pests of  the  ocean  will  sometimes  uncover 
the  depths  of  the  abyss.  To  perfect  his 
opportunities,  he  now  comes  in  contact  with 
a  man,  who,  without  ideal,  is  placed  in 
easy  and  ordinary  circumstances  of  life,  and 
who  has  formed  thence,  the  most  preposter- 
ous opinions  of  the  morality  of  human 
nature. 
Augitstin  enters  the  lists  with  Pelagius. 
4 


38  THE    VOICE    OF 

But  this  is  not  a  controversy  between  two 
men  alone  :  it  lies  between  principles  —  two 
leading  tendencies  of  the  human  mind, 
which  have  appeard  in  all  ages.  Augustin 
sees  the  first  man  estranging  himself  from 
God :  from  this  estrangement  proceeds  sin, 
and  from  this,  the  moral  disorder  of  all  hu- 
manity. Human  nature,  according  to  him, 
is  a  mass  of  ruin.  [Massa  perditionis.) 
The  consequence,  as  well  as  the  punishment 
of  sin,  in  all  his  descendants,  is  the  obligation 
to  sin  also.  {Obligatio  pecati.)  Man  has 
lost  his  liberty,  and  his  power  to  do  any 
good  work.  He  can  no  more  have  any  thing, 
except  as  God  is  pleased  to  give  it  to  him. 
If  some  come  to  have  the  faith  of  the  gospel, 
while  others  do  not  —  the  reason  cannot  be 
found  in  man  ;  since  all  are  equally  incapable 
of  any  good  :  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  special 
act  of  God  alone  —  in  the  secret  counsels  of 
the    Almighty  —  in    an    election   of    grace. 


THE  Church.  39 

After  a  controversy  of  nearly  thirty  years  — 
carried  on  in  Africa,  in  Italy,  and  in  Middle 
Gaul  —  the  truth  triumphs,  and  the  doctrine 
of  the  total  inability  of  man,  remains  in  the 
Church. 

In  the  same  spirit  was  the  doctrine  of 
grace  explained  and  enforced  by  these  great 
minds  ;  and  this  brings  us  to  the  third  point, 
which  is  to  be  examined.  Already  had  it 
been  said  by  the  excellent  Hilary  ;  "  Re- 
demption is  given  gratuitously  —  not  accor- 
ding to  the  merit  of  works,  but  according  to 
the  will  of  the  giver  —  the  choice  of  Him 
who  redeems  us."  —  "In  this  consists  the 
grace  of  God — says  Augustin  —  that  He 
justifies,  not  by  our  righteousness,  but  by  his 
own."  But  he  insists  above  all,  that  the 
idea  of  grace  excludes  all  merit,  and  all 
natural  disposition  in  man  to  receive  salva- 
tion. God  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  with 
him  —  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  our  sal- 


40  THE    VOICE    OF 

vation.  "  That  which  God  begins  by  opera- 
ting —  says  he  —  He  ends  by  co-operating  : 
Commencing  —  He  operates,  that  we  might 
be  willing  —  and  to  finish,  he  now  co-ope- 
rates with  those  who  have  the  will :  —  "  ffe 
that  glorieth  let  him  glory  in  the  LordP 

Thus  is  the  Christian  science  greatly 
advanced  in  this  era.  The  doctrines  of  God, 
of  man,  of  salvation,  which  the  teachers  of 
of  the  first  period  had  indeed  seen  in  the 
Scriptures,  are  now  sounded  with  greater 
precision  and  more  profound  research.  Un- 
der the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
Theology  advances ;  for  there  is,  gentle- 
men such  a  thing  as  progress,  even  in 
Theology.  What  shall  we  say  then  of  those, 
who,  even  at  this  day,  would  persuade  us 
to  abandon  this  advance  not  only,  but  to 
return  to  those  errors  which  the  Church  has 
long  since  rejected  ?  "  Leaving  the  princi- 
ples of  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  let  us  go  on  to 
perfection." 


THE    CHURCH.  41 

III. —  THE    SCHOLASTIC    FORM. 

A  new  form  succeeds  to  that  which  has 
supplanted    the    primitive.      After    ages    of 
darkness,  the  East  beheld  a  great  intellect- 
ual   movement   in    the    eleventh    century. 
This   form  has  been  called  the   Scholastic 
from    Schola  —  the   School.      The    School 
seeks    to  separate   itself  from  the   Church, 
which   had  hitherto  been  supreme  —  to  ob- 
tain action  and  authority,  independent  of  the 
hierarchy.     Certain    liberal     minded    men, 
who  were  in  the  beginning  at  least,  neither 
monks  nor    ecclesiastics,  determined   to  es- 
tablish schools  altogether  distinct  from  those 
which    had   hitherto    existed.     From   these 
schools  soon  arises  the  University  of  Paris, 
the  mother  of  Scholastic  Philosophy.     The 
general    character  of  the    scholastic    form, 
then,  is  the  Spirit  of  the  Schools,  we    may 
say,  of  the    University/,  or  of  Science.     To 
apply  philosophy  to  Christianity;  to  reduce 
4* 


42  THE    VOICE  OF 

Christian  doctrines  to  systems ;  to  show 
their  connections,  their  internal  proofs,  and 
to  measure  them  not  only  by  the  heart,  but 
by  the  understanding ;  such  is  the  tendency 
of  the  Scholastic  form  of  Religion:  so  that  if 
the  first  era  may  be  called  the  form  of  life^ 
and  the  second  thai  o{  doctj^ines  —  the  third 
is  that  of  system.  There  is  yet  life  —  there 
are  yet  doctrines ;  but  that  which  pervails  is 
the  systematic.  It  was  then  that  each 
Doctor  published  his  system  —  his  Summa 
TheologicB.  It  was  the  age  advanced  of 
the  Church,  which  naturally  succeeded  to  its 
youth  and  manhood.  It  is  the  age  which 
loves  to  arrange  what  it  had  before  collected. 
It  meditates :  it  has  little  of  impulse,  but 
more  of  reflection.  There  were  indeed  men 
of  great  force  in  this  middle  era;  but  the 
prevailing  disposition  was  to  reflection  and 
system. 

Historical    studies  there   were  yet   none : 


THE    CHURCH.  43 

the  exegeticalj  were  no  more  as  esteemed ; 
and  yet  the  human  mind  was  awaking  with 
great  force  all  over  Europe.  It  needed  a 
guide  to  direct  it,  and  this  guide  was  found 
in  Dialectic  Philosophy :  and  as  Theology 
was  the  science  of  the  age,  the  human  mind 
adventured  upon  this  field,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  their  new  leader.  This  tendency 
of  the  scholastic  might  lead  to  rationalism  — 
10  infidelity ;  but  the  good  doctors  of  the  age 
opposed  to  these  the  holy  truths  of  Theology. 
"  The  Christian  (says  A?islem,  the  father  of 
Scholastic  Theology)  should  come  to  under- 
stand through  faith,  and  not  to  faith  through 
understanding.  I  seek  not  to  comprehend, 
in  order  to  believe  ;  I  believe,  that  I  may 
comprehend."  "And  I  believe  even,  because 
if  I  did  not  believe,  I  should  not  compre- 
hend." Immediately  Ahelard  and  his  school 
avail  themselves  of  the  scholastic  principle 
and  become  the  advocates  of  free  examina- 


44  THE    VOICE    OF 

tion.  They  wish  first  to  comprehend,  and 
then  to  believe.  "  Faith,  say  they,  estab- 
lished by  examination,  is  much  more  solid. 
It  is  necessary  to  meet  the  enemies  of  the 
Gospel  on  their  own  ground  :  if  we  are  not 
to  discuss,  we  must  believe  every  thing,  the 
false  as  well  as  the  true." 

In  the  mean  time  whatever  may  have  been 
the  danger  of  these  tendencies,  and  whatever 
the  reproaches  of  the  Church,  we  cannot 
accuse  these  doctors  with  having  abandoned 
any  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith.  We 
cannot  however  wholly  absolve  them. 
Scholasticism  often  disfigured  Christian 
truth.  Its  tendencies  and  the  times  in  which 
it  appeared,  necessarily  led  to  this.  Human 
reason  never  ventures  without  danger  on 
those  great  truths  which  surpass  created 
intelligence.  The  school  of  the  middle  ages, 
like  that  of  Alexandria  before,  shook  the 
foundations    of    the    Christian    system,     in 


THE    CHURCH.  45 

attempting  to  establish  them.  It  had  its 
great  minds,  and  under  its  influence  there 
was  progress  —  I  will  not  say  of  Religion, 
but  of  science,  of  Theology.  The  great 
men,  who  were  the  lights  of  these  times, 
communicated  much  instruction  to  the 
scholars,  who  filled  their  schools,  and  who 
followed  them  by  thousands,  and  into  the 
descent,  if  necessary,  where  chairs  of  doc- 
trine   were   established. 

It  has  become  common,  with  certain  un- 
believers, to  brand  Christian  orthodoxy,  as 
an  invention  of  the  middle  ages.  This 
trite  accusation  does  too  much  honour  to 
the  age  in  question  :  The  Christian  doctrine 
already  existed.  But  let  us  interrogate  some 
of  the  men  of  this  age. 

For  their  exposition  of  the  doctrifie  of 
Salvation^  let  us  hear  Anselm,  the  most 
influential  perhaps  of  all  the  Philosophical 
Theologians  —  Anselm  of  Canterbury,    the 


46 


THE    VOICE  OF 


second  Augustin  of  the  Latin  Church,  who 
knew  so  well  how  to  unite  the  researches  of 
Philosophy  with  the  purity  of  the  Clnistian 
faith.  The  system  of  Redemption  is  devel- 
oped by  him,  in  a  manner  to  satisfy  at  once 
the  understanding  and  the  heart.  *' All 
rational  creatures,  says  he,  are  under  obliga- 
tion to  submit  their  wills  to  the  will  of  the 
great  Creator.  This  law,  the  first  man 
transgressed,  and  thus  destroyed  the  har- 
mony of  moral  order.  Now  the  law  of  eter- 
nal righteousness  demands,  either  that  the 
human  race  should  be  punished,  or  that  by 
some  satisfaction,  proceeding  from  humanity, 
that  order  should  be  restored.  Without  this, 
it  would  be  altogether  inconsistent  that 
polluted  man  should  hold  communion  with 
happy  spirits.  But  man  could  not,  of  him- 
self, accomplish  this  satisfaction.  As  human 
nature  had  been  corrupted  by  one,  so  by  one 
ought  the  satisfaction  to  be  made. 


THE    CHURCH.  47 

He,  who  should  eftect  this,  must  be 
some  beinof  above  creatures.  He  must  be 
God  himself;  and  in  the  mean  time  he  must 
be  human  also,  to  the  end  that  the  satisfac- 
tion may  be  applicable  to  humanity.  This 
could  be  none  other,  then,  than  God-man, 
the  Mediator.  This  God-man,  must  de- 
liver himself  up  to  death  voluntarily,  since 
he  .was  not  as  God,  subject  to  death  :  and 
he  must  exhibit  perfect  obedience  in  the 
midst  of  the  greatest  sorrows.  God  would 
then  owe  to  Christ  a  recompence  ;  but  Christ, 
as  God,  could  need  no  recompence :  He 
could  therefore  transfer  his  merits  to  the 
world,  and  demand  for  his  reward  the  salva- 
tion of  believers.  Thus  speaks  Anselm 
in  his  Treatise  —  Lur  Dens  %omo  ? 

But  what  is  remarkable  —  considering  the 
common  opinion  formed  of  these  men  —  is, 
that  they  insist  much  on  the  sanctifying 
influence     of  faith.     "  The     suflferings   of 


48 


THE    VOICE    OF 


Christ,  says  Peter  Lamhord,  the  inustrions 
Master  of  the  Seiitences  —  deliver  us  from 
sin  ;  for  this  immense  sacrifice  of  divine  love 
inspires  us  with  love  for  God,  and  this  love 
works  our  sanctification."  "  The  just  man, 
who  lives  by  faith,  says  Robert  Pulley n^  is 
already  sanctified  within,  and  exhibits  good 
works  as  signs  of  his  faith  and  sanctification : 
faith  first  produces  righteousness  of  heart, 
and  righteousness  of  heart  produces  good 
works."  Alexander  de  Hales^  who  was 
called  the  irrefragable  doctor^  speaks  thus  : 
"  Man  in  his  original  state  never  opposed 
himself  to  God.  He  then  had  need  only  of 
formative  grace ;  but  now  that  there  is 
something  in  him  opposite  to  God,  and 
which  cannot  be  removed  except  by  the 
power  of  God,  man  needs  transformative 
graceP 

There  are   undoubtedly  some  differences 
between  these   great  men,  but  these  differ- 


THE   CHURCH.  49 

ences  only  show  how  firmly  established  they 
were  in  the  essential  truths  of  Salvation. 
Anselm,  for  instance,  Thomas  Aquinas,  and 
others,  supposed  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
effected  the  salvation  of  man,  in  virtue  of  an 
intrinsic  value ;  {ex  insito  valore :)  while 
many  other  Scholastics,  and  Duns  Scott  in 
particular,  contended  that  it  was  owing 
solely  to  the  design  and  counsel  of  God. 
This  was  the  diiference ;  while  all  pro- 
claimed that  man  was  a  lost  being,  and 
saved  alone  by  the  death  of  the  God-man 
Jesus  Christ. 


IV. THE  FORM  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  these  last  ages,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  Wickliffs  and  the  Wal- 
dos, the  forerunners  of  that  great  movement, 
which  now  began  to  appear  in  the  world. 
The  Church  had  had  its  youth,  full  of  life 
5 


50 


THE   VOICE    OF 


and  vigour,  its  manhood  mature  with 
strength  and  clearness,  and  its  ripe  age  of 
reason  and  of  system.  But  after  the  period 
of  the  schools  the  age  of  rationalism  was 
past.  Now  the  hierarchy  sought  to  embrace 
all  within  its  iron  grasp  :  life,  dogma,  system, 
lay  as  under  a  funeral  stone,  and  all  the 
noble  tendencies  of  the  Church  must  die. 
Vain  effort !  She  burst  these  bands  of  death, 
rolled  back  the  stone  of  the  Sepulchre,  and 
came  forth,  a  dead  man  restored  to  life  !  Let 
us  salute  her,  under  this  fourth  form,  the 
form  of  the  Reformation. 

If  the  three  preceding  forms  were  those 
of  life,  of  doctrines,  of  system,  what  shall  be 
the  characteristic  of  this?  Gentlemen,  the 
Reformation  was  the  re-establishment  of 
former  things.  But  this  re-establishment 
will  not  have  respect  to  any  one  of  the  pre- 
ceding forms  exclusively ;  it  shall  be  the 
re-uniting  of  the  whole.      Of  these,    which 


THE    CHURCH. 


51 


had  before  existed  only  in  separate  forms,  it 
will  now  form  an  admirable  Triology.  Be- 
hold, our  fourth  form^  an  epoch  of  the 
Church.  The  Reformation  takes  the  form  of 
system,  carries  that  back  to  dogma,  and  then 
crowns  all  with  the  characteristic  of  life.  It 
unites  the  three  wisdoms  of  preceding  ages. 
She  commenced  with  the  life.  Luther 
proved,  through  divine  grace,  the  living 
influence  of  Christianity,  as  no  preceding 
Doctor,  perhaps,  had  ever  felt  it  before.  The 
Reformation  sprang  living  from  his  own 
heart,  where  God  himself  had  placed  it. 
The  era  which  passed  during  the  time  of  the 
Teacher  of  Wittemburgh,  was,  so  to  speak, 
all  life.  This  is  so  true,  that  the  admirable 
work  published  by  Melancthoii,  (the  Theolo- 
gian of  the  Reformation,)  we  speak  now  of 
the  1st  edition  of  his  Loci  Communes  — 
omits  the  doctrine  of  the  essence  of  God  and 
the  Trinity.     Not  that  he  considered  these 


62  THE    VOICE    OF 

doctriiies  unimportant ;  they  are,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  basis  of  his  system ;  but  because  in 
his  own  words,  "  it  is  more  profitable  to  adore 
these  mysteries,  than  deeply  attempt  to  sound 
them." 

But  even  here  you  will  find  that  Christian 
life  is  built  on  Christian  doctrine :  and  then 
accordingly,  in  the  second  period  of  the 
Reformation,  {that  which  produced  the  con- 
fession of  Aiigsburgh,  drawn  up  by  Me- 
lancthon  himself,)  these  doctrines  are  pre- 
sented, defined,  and  illustrated  in  all  their 
force.  The  Trinity,  total  depravity,  and 
above  all,  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  alone,  are  there  explained  with  a  clear- 
ness and  force  scarce  equalled  in  the  epoch 
of  dogmatism  itself.  You  find  system,  also, 
in  the  harmonious  distribution  of  all  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  ;  and  this  characteristic 
appears  above  all  in  the  third  period  of  the 
Reforniatiouj    under   the    influence   of  Me- 


THE    CHURCH.  53 

lancthon  of  Germany,  and  Calvin  of  Ge- 
neva. The  Christian  Institutes  of  our 
Reformer,  will  remain  for  ages,  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  monuments  of  the  Christianity 
of  system. 

Would  you  know  how  strong  is  the  testi- 
mony of  this  epoch  to  the  immutable  truths 
of  the  Gospel,  hear  the  great  Doctor  of  Wit- 
temburgh  on  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  "  If 
Christ,"  says  he,  "  be  not  the  true  and  essential 
God,  begotten  of  the  Father  in  eternity,  and 
the  creator  of  all  creatures  —  we  are  lost : 
for  of  what  avail  were  the  sufferings  and 
death  of  Christ,  if  he  were  only  man  like  you 
and  I?  He  could  not,  in  that  case,  conquer 
Satan,  sin,  and  death.  We  need  a  Saviour, 
who  is  truly  God  over  all :  the  conqueror  of 
sin  and  death,  of  Satan  and  hell.  In  vain  do 
the  Arians  tell  us  he  is  the  most  exalted  of 
creatures.  They  wish  in  this  way  to  screen 
their  shameful  error,  that  the  people  may  not 
5* 


54  THE    VOICE    OF 

perceive  it ;  but  if  we  corrupt^the  doctrine  of 
Christ  in  the  least  degree,  irreparable  mischief 
is  done.  If  you  take  away  his  proper  Divini- 
ty, there  is  no  deliverance  for  us  from  the 
wrath  to  come." 

And  what  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Reforma- 
tion concerning  man  7  It  reduces  to  powder 
the  subtleties  of  the  Scholastics  on  this  point, 
and  presents  the  truth  with  an  admirable 
clearness  and  simplicity.  Luther,  even  before 
the  publication  of  his  famous  Theses  on  In- 
dulgences, published  others  concerning 
man  ;  and  here  are  some  of  the  great  truths, 
which,  even  at  the  morning  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, he  declares  himself  ready  to  defend. 

"  That  man  has  become  an  evil  tree,  and 
can  neither  will  nor  do  any  thing  but  evil." 

"  On  the  part  of  man,  there  is  nothing  pre- 
ceding grace  but  impotency  aud  rebellion." 
"  There  is  no  moral  virtue  without  pride, 
or  discontent,  {tristesse.)  that  is  without  sin." 


THE    CHURCH.  55 

"  He  who  is  destitute  of  the  grace  of  God 
sins  continually,  though  he  should  not  steal, 
kill,  or  commit  adultery." 

But  in  what  manner  shall  we  speak,  gen- 
tlemen, of  the  testimony  which  the  Refor- 
mation gives  to  the  doctrine  of  grace  7  It 
was  by  this  doctrine  that  it  overturned  en- 
tirely the  foundations  of  Rome. 

The  Reformation  never  suffers  man  to  rest 
the  hope  of  his  salvation  in  any  thing  done 
by  himself  or  in  himself.  Christ  is  the  only 
foundation  ;  and  faith,  in  his  name,  the  only 
means  of  grace.  Every  other  view  leads 
either  to  pride  or  despair.  Hear  Luther : 
writing  to  his  friend  iSphanlein,  he  says, 
"  Have  you  at  length  despaired  of  your  own 
righteousness  ?  And  do  you  rejoice  and 
confide  in  the  righteousness  of  Christ? 
Learn,  my  brother,  to  know  Christ  and  him 
crucified  ;  learn  to  despair  of  yourself  and  to 
sing  this  song,  'Jesus,  my  Lord,    thou    art 


66  THE   VOICE    OF 

my  righteousness,  and  I  thy  sin :  thou  hast 
taken  that  which  was  mine,  and  given  me 
that  which  belons^ed  to  thee :  thou  hast  be- 
come  what  thou  wast  not,  and  caused  me  to 
be  what  I  was  not  myself.'  "  Works,"  says 
he,  "  on  one  occasion,  are  not  taken  into  con- 
sideration, when  justification  is  the  subject 
concerned.  True  faith,  indeed,  will  never 
fail  to  produce  good  works,  any  more  than 
the  sun  will  fail  to  shine ;  but  after  all,  it  is 
not  our  good  works  which  dispose  God  to 
justify  us." 

"  Undoubtedly,"  says  Melancthon,  "  renova- 
tion of  heart  must  flow  from  faith  ;  but  if  you 
inquire  after  justification,  turn  your  eyes 
from  this  renovation  and  fix  them  on    the 

promises  —  on  Christ— knowing  that  we  are 
justified  only  for  the  love  of  Christ,  and  not 
on  account  of  our  new  nature.  Faith  justi- 
fies, not  as  some  suppose,  because  it  is  in  us, 
as  the  root  of  a  good  tree ;    but  because  it 


THE   CHURCH.  57 

lays  hold  on  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  love  of 
whom  we  are  rendered  acceptable  to  God.'' 
"  We  offer  nothing  to  God,"  says  Calvin,  "but 
by  his  grace,  we  are  become,  as  it  were,  all 
pure  without  regard  to  our  works." 

All  the  Reformers,  while  they  differ  on 
some  points,  are  of  one  accord  in  this.  In 
Germany,  in  Switzerland,  in  France,  in  Great 
Britain,  in  Italy  even,  and  in  Spain,  they 
teach  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith 
alone. 

But  why  do  I  enlarge  ?  Have  we  not  the 
Confessions  of  the  Reformers,  and  do  not  the 
adversaries  of  our  faith,  as  well  as  its  friends, 
agree  that  this  was  pre-eminently  the  doctrine 
of  the  Reformation  ? 

Gentlemen  ;  there  is  yet  another  period — 
a  ffth  form,  perhaps,  now  commencing  for 
the  Church  ;  — a  form  unknown,  mysterious, 
and  of  which  the  characteristics  cannot  yet  be 


68  THE  VOICE   OF 

very  clearly  defined.  Of  one  thing  however 
we  may  be  confident:  one  thing  the  past 
teaches,  and  that  is,  that  the  same  great  veri- 
ties which  have  formed  the  foundation  hith- 
erto, will  be  the  essence  of  the  form  which  is 
yet  to  come.  The  salutary  doctrines  which 
have  yet  governed  the  Church,  will  not  relin- 
quish her  helm  now.  This  precious  vessel 
shall  not  be  abandoned  to  perfidious  and 
ephemeral  winds  ;  —  to  the  heresies  of  Theo- 
dosiiis  and  Pelagius  —  of  Arms  and  Soci- 
nus.  Ce  qui  ete  sera !  That  which  has 
been,  will  be. 

Further  than  this  :  the  history  of  the  past 
is  a  guarantee  that  the  future  shaH  re-unite  all 
which  was  good  in  forms,  that  are  now  no 
more.  God  will  not  permit  any  thing  to  be 
lost,  which  was  once  in  his  Church,  and  for 
his  Church.  And  this  leads  me  to  glance  at 
an  error  of  some  well-intentioned  Christians, 
who  speak  of  returning  to  primitive  Chris- 


THE  CHURCH.  59 

tianity,  without  caring  for  what  lies  in  the 
way  from  that  to  the  present  times.  The 
Church  could  no  more  disengage  itself  from 
the  influence  of  the  different  forms  through 
which  she  has  passed,  than  a  tree  could  despoil 
itself  of  the  different  layers  with  which  each 
returning  spring  has  clothed  it ;  or  the  body 
of  a  full  grown  man  get  rid  of  the  accretions 
of  pre\rious  years. 

For  us,  gentlemen,  we  will  not  indeed 
turn  our  eyes  wholly  to  the  future ;  but  nei- 
ther will  we  wholly  reject  the  past.  The 
past  will  be  in  the  future.  Life,  doctrines, 
system,  all  will  be  united  and  perfectly,  in 
the  form  which  is  yet  to  be. 

In  the  meantime  there  will  undoubtedly 
be  something  to  distinguish  this  new  form 
from  that  of  the  Reformation  ;  but  who  shall 
say  what  it  will  be?  I  will  venture  to  say 
thus  much,  —  that  perhaps  the  principal  cha- 
racteristic, will  be  the  missio7iary  spirit  — 


60  THE  VOICE  OF 

the  carrying  to  all  the  race  of  men,  and  to 
every  individual  that  which  the  preceding 
forms  have  preserved  and  produced.  Did  not 
the  period  of  the  Reformation  unite  the  isola- 
ted good  of  three  preceding  eras,  to  the  end 
that  the  new  period  might  stretch  out  its 
hand,  laden  with  these  riches,  and  scatter 
them  abroad  over  all  the  earth  ?  Oucrht  not 
these  riches  to  become  the  property  of  all 
men,  and  in  a  manner  they  have  not  yet  been  ? 
But  I  refrain  from  these  suggestions  —  cover- 
ed as  they  are  with  a  veil  of  deep  obscurity. 
But  one  thing  is  certain  and  we  ought  to. 
know  it.  We  are,  gentlemen,  entering  on  a 
new  era  for  science  and  for  the  Church :  and 
ours  is  the  generation  which  must  give  to 
this  new  era  its  first  and  most  important  im- 
pulse. There  is  much  to  do,  and  but  few  as 
yet  to  accomplish  it.  You,  at  least,  my  voice 
can  reach.  Destined,  therefore,  to  open  this 
new  direction  of  piety  and  of  science,  form 


THE   CHURCH.  61 

yourselves  as  scribes  and  teachers  for  the 
work.  Understand,  that  to  conquer  a  strong 
infidelity  will  require  a  strong  faith  and  ex- 
tensive knowledge.  Enrich  yourselves  with 
the  past,  to  prepare  for  the  future.  Ye  young 
men,  who  are  yet  to  serve  the  Church  of 
Him  who  has  given  his  life  for  the  sheep ; 
and  ye  who  arfe  already  established  over  the 
flock,  understand  well  what  it  is,  which  a 
sound  Theology  will  require.  Profit  by  the 
instructions  of  history.  Let  her  carry  you 
beyond  the  narrow  bounds  with  which  pre- 
judice or  locality  may  have  surrounded  you 
—  and  leave  the  dull  track  where  servile  spi- 
rits are  willing  to  drag  themselves  along. 
Live  —  not  alone  with  the  passing  moment, 
but  with  other  ages.  History  invokes  them  : 
history  surrounds  you  with  them,  and  makes 
you  hear  their  grand  and  solemn  testimony. 
Will  you  reject  the  voice  of  all  the  Church, 
and  of  Jesus  Christ  himself,  for  the  voice  of  a 
6 


62  THE    VOICE    OP 

single  teacher  ?  Will  you  despise  that  glory 
which  comes  from  God,  and  seek  for  that 
which  comes  from  the  present  world  ?  Pur- 
sue this  wonderful  chain,  the  first  link  of 
which  is  in  God  himself,  and  which,  forming 
itself  through  so  many  ages,  has  reached  at 
length  even  unto  us.  Be  unwilling  to  turn 
aside  for  some  obscure  heresy :  be  firm  and 
faithful,  should  you  find  yourselves  alone  — 
alone  in  the  Church,  alone  in  the  world  —  a 
confessor  and  a  martyr  for  "  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh."  Be  not  disheartened,  but  comfort 
yourselves  in  reflecting  that  you  have  God 
for  your  witness,  and  the  company  of  all  those 
illustrious  men,  whose  voice  you  have  to- 
day heard.  History  shows  that  Christianity 
has,  in  all  ages,  acted  with  force  upon  the 
minds  of  men  ;  but  shows  at  the  same  time, 
that  it  is  by  the  same  doctrines  that  this  re- 
generating influence  has  been  felt.  The  or- 
thodox dogmas  alone  have  had  this  power, 


THE  CHURCH.  63 

whether  on  individuals  or  a  people.  All 
others  have  served  only  to  amuse,  and  to 
ruin  them.  Never  will  you  find  life,  where  you 
do  not  find  truth.  Are  you  willing  then  to 
be  mere  rhetoricians,  and  amused  by  high- 
sounding  language  ;  or  do  you  desire  to  be 
the  benefactors  of  your  race,  and  save  them 
by  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God  ?  Attach 
yourselves,  I  pray  you,  to  that  which  is  sa- 
ving—  immutable  —  eternal :  associate  your- 
selves with  a  sacred  host.  Behold  ;  what 
mighty  efforts  are  now  making  in  Switzer- 
land and  in  France,  in  Germany  and  in  Hol- 
land, in  Great  Britain  and  America,  to  restore 
to  the  world  a  sound  Theology  and  establish 
the  throne  of  truth. 

And  thou,  O  God  most  High  :  by  that  light 
which  causeth  to  see  light  —  illuminate  our 
minds,  and  open  the  portals  of  that  science, 
whose  unsearchable  treasures  are  concealed 
in  Jesus  Christ ! 


A  LIST 

OF 

VALUABLE  AND  POPULAR  BOOKS, 

PUBLISHED   BY 

JOHN    S.   TAYLOR  &   CO., 

THEOLOGICAL  AND   SUNDAY  SCHOOL   PUBLISHERS  AND 
BOOKSELLERS, 

At   the  New-York  Juvenile  and  Sunday  School   Book  Depository, 
Brick  Church  Chapel,  145  Nassau-st., 

NEW-YORK. 


D'AUBTGNE'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREAT 
REFORMATION,  abridged  by  the  Rev.  Ed- 
ward  Dalton,  1  vol.  18rao.  447  pages.     Price         50 

Probably  no  book  of  modern  date  has  obtained  such 
a  wide-spread  popularity,  and  been  so  extensively  read 
as  D'Aubigne's  History  of  the  Great  Reformation  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  &c. 
Engrossing  and  enduring  as  must  be  the  interest  con- 
nected with  the  detail  of  the  historical  incidents  of  the 
6* 


Great  Reformation,  the  author  of  this  work  has  invest- 
ed them  with  all  the  charm  and  fascination  of  romance. 
The  Abridgement  retains  most  of  the  attractions  of 
the  larger  work,  and  brings  it  within  the  means,  as  to 
time  and  expense,  of  a  still  larger  body  of  readers.  Of 
the  faithfulness  with  which  this  Abridgement  has  been 
made,  the  following  testimonial  from  the  New- York 
Observer  of  Oct.  21,  is  abundant  and  satisfactory  evi- 
dence. It  is  from  the  pen  of  a  distinguished  clergyman 
of  New-York,  whose  opinions  on  such  subjects  are  en- 
titled to  universal  confidence. 

^^Abridgement  of  D^Aubigne. — The  following  notice 
of  the  Abridgement  published  by  John  S.  Taylor  & 
Co.  is  from  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  American 
Tract  Society. 

'  I  have  read  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dalton's  Abridgement  of 
D'Aubigne's  History,  as  reprinted  by  Mr.  Taylor,  and 
have  fully  compared  it  with  Mr.  Carter's  edition  of  the 
original  work.  I  am  free  to  say  that  I  think  the  abridge- 
ment is  made  with  great  fidelity  and  sound  judgment. 
It  consists  almost  wholly  of  the  author's  own  words, 
and  embraces  those  parts  which  are  of  most  prominent 
interest.  Doubtless  those  who  can  command  the  time 
will  prefer  to  read  the  original  work ;  but  those  who 
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The  work  is  printed  on  good  type,  contains  447 
pages,  and  is  sold  at  the  exceedingly  low  price  of  50 
cents." 

A  VOICE  FROM  ANTIQUITY,  To  the  Men 

of  the  Nineteenth  Century  :  or,  Read  the  Book. 


By  J.  H.  Merle  D'Aubigne,  author  of  the  «  His- 
tory of  the  Reformation  in  the  Sixteenth  Cen- 
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THE  VOICE  OF  THE  CHURCH  ONE,  Un- 
der all  the  Successive  Forms  of  Christianity : 
A  Discourse,  pronounced  at  the  opening  of 
the  Theological  School  at  Geneva.  By  J.  H. 
Merle  D'Aubigne,  D.D.    1  vol.  18mo.    Price        25 

PUSEYISM  EXAMINED.  By  J.  H.  Merle 
D'Aubigne,  D.  D.,  author  of  the  "  History  of 
the  Reformation  in  the  Sixteenth  Century." 
With  an  Introductory  Notice  of  the  author,  by 
Robert  Baird.     1  vol.  18mo.     Price    .  .25 

THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WILDERNESS, 
and  other  Fragments,  from  the  Study  of  a 
Pastor.  By  Gardiner  Spring,  Pastor  of  the 
Brick  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  city  of  New- 
York.     1  vol.  12mo.   Price       .  .  .75 

The  following  notice  of  Spring's  Fragments  is  ex- 
tracted from  the  N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser. 

The  first  piece,  entitled  the  "  Church  in  the  Wil- 
derness," is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  sketches  in  our 
language.  It  is  in  every  respect  a  finished  production 
— a  picture  complete  in  all  its  parts,  that  for  the  time 
captivates  the  affections,  enchains  the  powers  of  the 
mind,  and  fills  the  soul  with  the  most  exalted  concep- 
tions.  The  Church  is  represented,  under  the  various 
circumstances  of  her  earthly  allotment,  leaning  on  the 
arm  of  her  Beloved,  and  deriving  all  her  strength  from 
this  unfailing  source.  The  chastened  but  glowing 
fancy,  elegance  of  diction,  and  purity  of  thought,  con- 
spire to  give  beauty  to  the  image,  and  make  us  dwell 
upon  it  with  delight. 

The  other  pieces  in  the  collection  are  scarcely  of 
inferior  merit.  "  The  Inquiring  Meeting "  portrays 
with  great  vividness  some  of  the  phases  which  the  hu- 


man  heart  exhibits,  when  under  the  influence  of  reli- 
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man "  abounds  in  instructions  of  inestimable  value.  It 
may  perhaps  be  doubted  whether  the  author  attaches 
sufficient  importance  to  pastoral  visitation.  "  The  Pan- 
orama  "  is  an  affecting  delineation  of  the  employment 
of  men  as  they  usually  appear  on  the  stage  of  active 
life.  "The  Useful  Christian"  contains  sound  practi- 
cal suggestions  for  informing  the  mind,  regulating  the 
heart,  and  inspiring  energy  of  action. 

OBLIGATIONS  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  THE 
BIBLE,  by  Gardiner  Spring,  D.  D.,  1  vol. 
12  mo.     Price  .  .  .  .         1  00 

THEOPNEUST  Y,  Or  the  Plenary  Inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  by  L.  Gaussen,  Professor 
of  Theology  in  the  new  Theological  School  of 
Geneva,  Switzerland.  Second  American,  from 
the  second  French  edition,  revised  and  enlarged 
bv  the  author.  Translated  by  the  Rev.  Edward 
Norriskisk,  1  vol.  12mo.     Price  .  .     1  00 

THE  FAMILY  OF  BETHANY,  By  Rev.  L. 
Bonnet,  with  an  Introductory  Essay,  by  the 
Rev.  Hu£Th  White,  1  vol.  18mo.     Price  .        37 

MEMOIR  OF  THE  LATE  REV.  WM.  NEV- 
INS,  D.  D.,  1  vol.  12mo.        .  .  .     1  00 

TRANSPLANTED  FLOWERS,  or  Memoirs 
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AIDS  TO  PREACHING  AND  HEARING,  by 
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HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMATION,  by 
Thomas  Hart  well  Home,  author  of  "Home's 
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MEMOIR  OF  CHARLES  LATHROP  WIN- 
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THE  WIDOW'S  SON,  and  other  Familiar 
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LETTERS  FROM  IRELAND,  by  Charlotte 
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PRINCIPALITIES  AND  POWERS  IN  HEA- 
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PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS,  by  Charlotte 
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HELEN  FLEETWOOD,  a  Narrative,  by  Char- 
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MORAL  TALES,  by  Robert  Merry,  with  engra- 
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MORAL  LESSONS  AND  STORIES,  from  the 
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A  VISIT  TO  NORTHERN  EUROPE,  Or, 
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and  Customs,  Commerce,  Manufactures,  Arts 
and  Sciences,  Education,  Literature  and  Reii- 


8 

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HEROINES  OF  SACRED  HISTORY,  by 
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A  TALE  OF  THE  HUGENOTS,  or  Memoirs 
of  a  French  Refugee  Family ;  translated  from 


Date  Due 


IN  U.  S.  A. 


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